Defenders of Humanity
by The Steel Phoenix
Summary: EvaDeathstalker. The scion of an ancient warrior family arises, desiring nothing to do with violence. He is driven by duty and honor, but will he succeed, or will Humanity fall with him?
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note: I do not own any of the media used in this fic. If I did, I'd be rich, and too busy throwing parties to write this. I'm new to this, so please leave constructive criticism. Flamers will be publicly ridiculed. Also, it's been awhile since I saw Eva, so if I get my facts horribly screwed up, tell me and I will fix them. Keep in mind, however, that MANY things will be intentionally different. Anywho, on with the show._

--

Always, there are powerful beings observing, and occasionally meddling, in the affairs of lesser mortals.

More often than not, these beings are mortals themselves, inflated with an exaggerated sense of self-worth and drunk with power, and cause more harm than good.

Occasionally, one arises who was born with their power, and is worshiped as a god, or cursed as something other than human. Usually, this power drives its wielder to the extremes of sanity or insanity, neither of which end well. Whatever the case, the outcome is always the same: Chaos.

Actual Deities do exist, but they tend not to interfere, instead allowing their creations to provide entertainment for Eternity.

The rarest, and arguably the most dangerous, is the one who was once mortal, but is no longer. This one knows the benefit of cooperation, of respect, of mutually assured destruction. This one rarely interferes directly, but provides the occasional... nudge in the proper direction. This one is also capable of emotion: Anger, hate, joy, despair, love...

One thousand years before Second Impact, the Deathstalker and his wife appeared in Japan, drawn by a great power: dark, evil, and waiting for release. This power, concentrated at the South Pole, was to be Humanity's first real test.

Immediately, the pair realized that Humanity would not be ready for the test when it came, and created a Clan, a Family, that would produce a warrior capable of vanquishing the Darkness. Many things were passed to the descendants of this union: a sense of duty and honor, innate ability with the sword, and a strange attraction to redheads apparent only in those who would one day become great. And, of course, the true Deathstalker inheritance: the honor of, in fact, _being_ a Deathstalker, as well as the genetic benefit of being one of the direct line.

Halfway across the world, in the region that would later become the Holy Roman Empire, a passing Deity realized the grave error that had been made when the Darkness had been entombed in the South, and set in motion a series of events that would produce a warrior capable of driving back the Darkness. After all, one-sided slaughter was no fun to watch.

In the South, the Darkness laughed, and sent into the world the means of its release.

And now, one thousand years later, the original pair, the once-mortal aristocrat and rebel Owen Deathstalker and his wife, the once-mortal pirate Hazel d'Ark, bound to the Earth and denied the ability to directly interfere by the same power that drew them in the first place, can do nothing more than watch as Humanity takes its first steps towards Destiny.

--

At a phone booth on a corner in Tokyo-3, a young man stood, staring at the telephone in his hand. His name was Shinji Ikari, and he was rather confused. He also had the strangest feeling that he was being watched.

"What is going on?" he wondered aloud as the computerized voice on the other end repeated its message. "All residents are to proceed to emergency shelters immediately? Why?" Sighing, he hung up the phone and looked around.

"Crap. She's late."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something. Or rather, someone. Someone familiar, although he wasn't quite sure why. He was pretty sure he would remember someone like that; pale skin, blue hair, red eyes, attractive figure. He blinked, and she was gone. "Well, that was weird," he muttered.

And then he saw it. It was large and bipedal, with two very long arms, a face that appeared to be made of white stone, and a glowing sphere implanted in its chest. Immediately, the few instincts he had kicked in, and commanded him to RUN! Not having anything better to do, he obeyed.

While he was running, a blue sports car skidded to a stop in front of him, its door already open. Inside, a pretty black-haired woman was looking at him with a mixture of urgency and expectancy. "Get in, Shinji."

Before he even had a chance to buckle his seatbelt, the car was several hundred feet from where he had been picked up, and was accelerating rapidly. As she drove, the woman looked at him and said, "Pleased to meet you, Shinji. I'm Misato Katsuragi. Your father asked me to bring you to Headquarters."

Suddenly, her cell phone rang, and she answered it quickly. "Hello... yes, I have him... yes, I KNOW the Angel is here, it's right behind me... you WHAT? Shit!"

With that, she snapped the phone shut and slammed on the brakes. The car skidded to a stop near a ditch. Grumbling to herself, she darted out of the car, pulling Shinji with her.

"Wha... what's going on?" Shinji whelped.

"They're dropping an N2 mine on the Angel."

"Aren't those..."

"Yes. Now, get down!" With that, the two of them dove into the ditch and covered their heads with their hands, and Shinji fought an urge to kiss himself goodbye.

There was a very large explosion on the horizon, and a massive shockwave rolled the car onto its side and broke its windows. Dust, debris, and small trees flew past the cowering pair. A wave of intense heat passed overhead, and both Shinji and Misato were quickly bathed in sweat.

Several seconds passed, and the shockwave died down. "Dammit, I just finished paying off the loan, too..." Misato muttered as she and Shinji rolled the car back onto its wheels.

--

Half an hour later, Misato was leading Shinji through the maze that was the bowels of NERV, muttering to herself. "Left... right... left... straight...left... left... straight... left... waitaminute, we were just here..."

"Are you lost?" Shinji asked.

"Of course not. I know exactly where I'm going. It's just through that door..." she replied indignantly as she marched to the door and flung it open...

...And was greeted by a tall blond woman wearing a blue bathing suit and a white lab coat. "You're lost again, aren't you?"

At that, Misato laughed awkwardly. "Sorry, Ritsuko. All these corridors look the same..."

"Is that the Third Child?" At Misato's answering nod, Ritsuko sighed and said, "Very well, follow me."

As soon as she closed her mouth, alarms went off, and she took off at a sprint.

--

Finally, they had made it to the EVA hangar. Misato and Ritsuko were both breathing heavily, while Shinji had collapsed to the floor and was trying to catch his breath. Running through NERV was, after all, rather tiring. A side effect of this situation was that he didn't realize what he was in front of...

Finally he looked up... and saw a head. A big, purple one. With a horn. "What the hell is that?" he asked.

"That is EVANGELION Unit-01. You will pilot it."

Shinji looked up in surprise. The answer had not come from either of the two women behind him; rather it had come from a man standing behind a glass wall above the giant head.

"Father... why did you send for me?"

"You know exactly why."

"So, you're asking me to take this thing and go out there and fight?"

"Precisely"

"No way! How can you do something like this to me? I knew you didn't want me!"

"I called you because I have a need for you."

"Why me?

"Because no one else can."

"No, I can't... I've never even seen anything like this before! I can't do this!"

"You will be instructed"

"But there's no way! I can't pilot it

"If you're going to pilot it, do it now and quickly. If not, then leave!"

"Shinji, we don't have any time!" Ritsuko said.

"Get into it," Misato said.

"No! I didn't come for this! This is all wrong!" Shinji yelled.

Misato bent down and spoke quietly. "Shinji, just why did you come here? You must confront your father and you must confront yourself."

"I know it! but I just can't.."

"Doctor Akagi, fetch Rei."

"But... she's injured."

"She is not dead yet. She can still pilot."

Less than a minute later, the blond scientist wheeled in a gurney with an IV tree attached. On it lay a pale girl with hair and red eyes who was injured severely. Her head and right arm were wrapped in bandages, and her right eye was covered with gauze. She seemed to be grimacing in pain, and it was obvious, even to Shinji, that she would not be able to do much. She also seemed familiar... but this time, Shinji knew why. He had seen her earlier that day (minus the bandages), just before the giant... thing had attacked.

Suddenly, several things happened at once.

A large explosion rocked the compound, and the gurney tipped over, dumping the girl unceremoniously to the floor...

Shinji dove forward and caught her before she hit the ground, clutching the albino to his chest. She cried out in pain, and Shinji felt a warm liquid run down his hand. He slowly looked at it; his hand was covered in blood, and more was pooling on the floor...

High above them, some debris was dislodged, and it plummeted down, headed straight for the two teenagers. There was no way that they would be able to get out of the way in time, especially since only one could move under his own power...

The giant purple behemoth shifted, and a massive hand darted out from beneath the sea of Bakelite and covered the pair even as they stared Death in the face...

A startled "Eep" escaped from Shinji's mouth as he saw debris fall and the hand move...

The debris hit the hand and bounced off, landing in the Bakelite with a mighty splash. If Gendo Ikari was surprised (which he almost certainly was) by the behemoth's sudden action, he didn't show it. However, Ritsuko and Misato were staring openmouthed from where they had fallen, as a report echoed over the intercom system.

"Unit-01 has broken free of restraints."

"Did... Did it just move under its own power? Did it just protect him?" Ritsuko wondered aloud.

Even more startling, however, was the sudden question from the boy beneath the hand.

"What do I do? I will pilot it; so what do I have to do?"

--

A few minutes later, Shinji was seated in a rather comfortable chair in what amounted to a large metal pipe embedded in the neck of the Eva. He still didn't know what was going on, or how to move the damned thing. _"I guess those two joysticks have something to do with it, but how can they control this whole thing?"_ he wondered.

Such thoughts were banished from his mind, however, as the tube he was in - Ritsuko had called it an 'entry plug', whatever that meant - began to fill with a foul-smelling yellow liquid.

"What the... what is this?"

Ritsuko's voice answered over the comm channel. "It's LCL. It allows you to become part of the Eva's nervous system. Without it, you would be unable to pilot. It will also allow you to breathe."

Shinji had a hard time believing that last bit. As the level of the LCL threatened to cut off his air, he began to hold his breath. That eventually ran out, and he was forced to inhale the liquid that completely submerged him. "I didn't think it was possible," he muttered, as a disgusted look crossed his face. "It tastes even worse than it smells." The plug then filled with light, and he could see what was going on.

"Complain later. Right now, prepare for launch," Misato's voice said over the intercom.

A few seconds later, he felt the behemoth rocket upwards. He emerged on the surface, in the middle of Tokyo-3. Before him stood his enemy, every bit as ugly and dangerous-looking as he remembered it. Most people would have run away gibbering in terror, but Shinji wasn't most people. Besides, he had tried that already, and it hadn't worked out quite as well as he had hoped. But that train of thought was quashed by another, more important one: "What now?" He had just realized that he had no idea how to move the Eva, or, more importantly, how to fight in it (the fact that he wasn't exactly skilled in fighting _out_ of it either never really crossed his mind).

Again, Ritsuko's voice sounded over the comm. "It will obey your commands. Just concentrate on walking forward; no one's expecting any more." In the background, he heard the technicians speaking. "Synch ratio holding at 41.3, no anomalies so far. Beginning data collection for Third Child." Seeing as how it made no sense to him, Shinji quickly blocked it out. Ignoring reality, after all, was something he excelled at.

Quietly, he chanted to himself. "Walk... walk... walk... walk..."

Tentatively, Unit-01 took a step forward, crushing a car... and then another... and then another, crushing the phone booth he had been waiting at earlier... and then fell flat on its face. The angel that stood before it almost seemed to laugh as it prepared to attack. Meanwhile, the purple giant regained its footing, and prepared to attack as well.

The Angel, however, beat the Eva to it, and lashed out. It caught the Eva squarely in the torso, and sent it flying. It crashed through several buildings before coming to rest at an intersection. Viewed from above, the debris cloud looked like a cross.

And then Unit-01 was up again, charging towards its foe, ready to disembowel it. The bridge crew could only watch in horror as they witnessed the Angel give the Eva the most severe beating any of them had ever seen. Eventually, Unit-01 was pressed up against a tall building, the Angel's hand covering its face. Suddenly, the horn that grew out of the Angel's elbow shot forward, through its arm, and repeatedly slammed into 01's head. Rather quickly, the facial armor of the Eva gave way, and the Eva was disabled. The Angel withdrew its hand, as if contemplating its next move, and a jet of a fluid much like blood vented from the wound as the crippled Unit slumped forward, its left eye a ruined, pulpy mass.

Inside his entry plug, Shinji screamed in agony, clutching his face. It was almost too much to bear, but then... it lessened. He looked up, and realized that the Angel had temporarily withdrawn, and was looking at him almost... quizzically, as a voice echoed in his head.

**THAT CAN'T BE IT, CAN IT? THE BEST THAT THE LILIUM HAVE TO OFFER, AND IT FALLS THAT EASILY? AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A WARRIOR... HA! PATHETIC SCUM. I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT THIS WOULD BE A CHALLENGE.**

Shinji couldn't bring himself to care about the voice in his head, however. The Eva wasn't moving for him any more, and he was wracked with pain. And then, somewhere in the back of his mind, a single word floated to the surface. He latched on to it much like a drowning rat latches on to a convenient piece of wood, and, without realizing it, said it very quietly. So quietly, in fact, that the audio pickups in the entry plug could not detect it.

_"Boost..."_


	2. Chapter 2

Inside NERV headquarters, the bridge staff was panicking. The initial horror of the EVA suffering such a grievous injury to its head was quickly replaced with fear as all communications with the unit were lost.

"Exterior brain case has been damaged! Extent of damage unknown!"

"We're having problems maintaining activation! The synchrograph is reversing direction and the pulses are flowing backwards!"

"Cut the circuit!"

"I can't! It isn't accepting any commands!"

"What about the pilot?" Misato wondered, as she looked at the lifesign monitors. They looked much like a tangled ball of string for a bit, and then flatlined.

_"This ends now…"_ "Abort!" Misato shouted, making herself heard over the din. "Rescuing the pilot is our first priority! Eject the entry plug!"

"We can't… It's gone completely out of control!"

And then… Unit-01 reactivated, its remaining eye glowing an eerie green as its mouth struggled to open. A horrifying wordless cry rent the air as the EVA regained its footing and regenerated its left arm. As another cry issued forth with the intonation of a word but not the syllables of one, the berserk unit charged forwards towards its foe.

**HEH HEH HEH… NOW THIS IS MORE LIKE IT. COME TO ME, AND MEET YOUR DOOM, PATHETIC LILIUM.**

The bridge crew could only watch in horror as the EVA tore the Angel's AT field in half, tore off one of the many spines around the Angel's core, and proceeded to beat it into bloody submission.

Suddenly, the Angel's form shifted, and it flowed into a featureless ball around Unit-01's head. "Oh hell… it's going to self destruct!" Ritsuko shouted. And, indeed, it did. A massive explosion rent the air, as several city blocks were destroyed and a column of flame reached almost a mile into the air.

As the berserk Unit-01 emerged from the inferno, roared, and collapsed, the bridge crew let out an involuntary sigh of relief, even as they shuddered at what the EVA had just done.

--

_"An unfamiliar ceiling..."_ was the first thought that entered his head when Shinji woke up, as the details of a dream about a maze faded away. _"Where am I?"_ and _"What happened?"_ soon followed. After that came _"I'm hungry... thirsty too."_ He was, after all, a teenaged boy. He also hadn't had anything to eat since his breakfast on the day he got into the Eva... whenever that was.

With a groan, the young man stirred, noticing for the first time the IV that ran into his arm, as well as the EEG and EKG machines that beeped softly next to the bed he was in. In a chair to his right, a woman sat, reading some sort of magazine. Temporarily dazed by the light, he couldn't identify her; rather, she appeared as a female-shaped red and black blur. He groaned again and rubbed his eyes, which allowed him to finally recognize her.

"Mi...Misato-san?"

"Sh...Shinji!" she exclaimed with a smile, quickly hiding the magazine she was reading, but not before he caught a glimpse of an image of pale flesh and plastic. "I see you're awake."

"I noticed," Shinji replied wryly. "What happened?"

"I don't know the details, but your EVA went berserk. After it tore the Angel apart, it shut down, and you've been unconscious ever since."

"Ah... how long was I out?"

"Oh, about three days. But, the doctors will probably let you out of here once you're conscious. They couldn't find anything wrong with you, after all."

"That's good... especially since I'm hungry." he replied as he slowly sat up. This motion caused the sheets to slide down, and he noticed that he was in a hospital gown. This caused him to pale immediately. "Um... where are my clothes?"

Misato responded with an impish grin. "I'm sure they're around somewhere."

Unnoticed by either of them, a pair of red eyes watched from the depths of a ventilation shaft.

_"Ikari-kun…"_

--

Some time later, Shinji lay soaking in the bathtub. He didn't know why he had been assigned to live with her instead of with his father, but he wasn't about to complain. Aside from a rather unfortunate incident involving her pet penguin Pen Pen, a shower curtain and a box of toothpicks, she seemed rather nice..

_"Misato Katsuragi… she's not a bad person. But while bathing might cleanse her mind, all of may bad memories find me while I bathe. Like Father… or Rei Ayanami."_

--

Early the next morning, Shinji found himself zoning out at school during a lecture about Second Impact. He had a very hard time paying attention to it, especially since he had a feeling that it wasn't true. Sighing, he pillowed his head with his arms, and attempted to catch up on some sleep. He was constantly dreaming of a maze, and his nights were not as restful as he would have liked.

He was interrupted by a message on his laptop that asked, "Is it true that you are a pilot Y/N?"

"What?" he responded.

"Are you the pilot of Evangelion Unit-01?"

Sighing, he figured that he might as well answer truthfully. They'd find out eventually anyway, and he hadn't been told to keep it a secret. "Yes."

He expected for one, maybe two of his classmates to turn and look at him, maybe gasp in surprise. He wasn't prepared for the whole class to exclaim about it, or to have most of the female population of his class clustered around him, asking what it was like.

--

After school, Shinji found himself accosted by a tall boy in a black track suit, who punched him in the face.

"Sorry, but I have to beat you up. I need to work off my anger." He punctuated this statement with a right hook. "You put my sister in the hospital, and I can't let you get away with that." Another punch.

"I didn't pilot it by choice," Shinji muttered. This earned him another punch, and the other boy stalked off, his camera-wielding friend in tow. Groaning, he rolled over, and suddenly found Ayanami staring at him, her arm in a cast and her head bandaged.

"We have an emergency call," she said. "I'll go."


End file.
